"It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas....the world which we see is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality."

The legendary Christopher Lee has passed away. He was 93. Interestingly, his death wasn't announced until four days afterward, which was June 7.

Primarily known as Count Dracula in a series of Hammer Horror films in the 60s and 70s as well as Fu Manchu in the 60s and Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond feature The Man with the Golden Gun (Lee happened to be the real-life step-cousin to Bond creator Ian Fleming), he came to greater mainstream recognition as Saruman in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit films and Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Lee continued to act despite his advancing age and though he had a distinct deep voice his voice acting credits were limited. In addition to revoicing Saurman in various Lord of the Rings games, Scaramanga in the GoldenEye: Rogue Agent game, and Count Dooku in the Clone Wars film, his voice acting credits include King Haggard in The Last Unicorn, Death in the TV animated adaptations of the Discworld books Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters (along with voice Death in the live-action adaptation of Color of Magic), and as DiZ in Kingdom Hearts II and 358/2 Days.

Very shocked and sad when I saw this. The Wicker Man is the only one of his classic horror films that I've seen, but as someone who was in elementary school during the early/mid 2000s, Lee played pivotal roles in some of the biggest film events of my childhood. The LotR trilogy remains my all time favorite. He'll definitely be missed. I'm glad that he was able to live such a long life, and that even in his final years he was still healthy enough to continue acting. I'll definitely have to check out his earlier work some time soon.

Last edited by Jpcase on June 11th, 2015, 4:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I was lucky enough to meet Christopher a couple of times at two events, plus had a magical hour long phone conversation with him at another point. Such a warm man.

I'm also saddened to hear of the death of Ron "Fagin" Moody, undeservedly never as big a name as Lee but just as amazing. He was very much typecast in his Oliver! role but also did lots of other work including a film I did a sound mix and edit polish on. Again, a very warm guy, who also pulled off a very amusing turn in Disney's Unidentified Flying Oddball, better known outside of the US by its much better title The Spaceman And King Arthur, a film that still makes me laugh every time!

There was an absolutely wonderful cd soundtrack called Leaving Rivendell (not available anymore unfortunately) that had songs and spoken material right from the LOTR books that were never included in the films. Lee narrated a lot of it, and what a wonderful collection it was! He had such an amazing, mythic voice!

"It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas....the world which we see is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality."

Lee had an amazing presence in his film projects. I love his old stuff (Hammer. etc.), his newer stuff (for Lucas and Jackson sure, but let's not forget Burton too!), and much of his in-between stuff (e.g. a Captain America villain in a cheesy TV movie!). Coincidentally I just bought a Lee DVD set with his Fu Manchu films--- might have to crack that open in his honour and give a watch this weekend.

Same here, as it would require someone who actually SAW Golden Compass in theaters.

And it's not disrespectful, but I remember Lee in his lesser pre-Burton/Lucas/Jackson years (Lee's "comeback" wasn't until Burton wanted to do a Hammer homage in "Sleepy Hollow") donning a pair of 80's New Wave sunglasses in Howling II.He actually managed not to be bitter about that one--he was doing the director a favor, after good experiences on Captain Invincible--although in a later horror retrospective, joked "I, too, have had my experience with werewolves, but...the less said, the better."The guy was old-school class.

The "joke," which obviously didn't land, was that it's literally Lee's smallest role in any major motion picture. He literally shows up out of nowhere, says only one line, and then is never seen or mentioned again. It's such a minor bit that I can't even find the clip on Youtube.

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."